Despite a lot of arms raising and mild protest from fans and media alike, the world now has a new WBC welterweight champion in undefeated Danny “Swift” Garcia. Garcia, who held a title at super lightweight, took a unanimous decision over fellow former champion Robert “Ghost” Guerrero this past Saturday night from the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. The event was the first by the Premier Boxing Champions series of Al Haymon on the Fox network. Yes, the same network of The Simpsons.
The criticism from some of the boxing world is despite the fact both Garcia and Guerrero are ranked by the World Boxing Council in their welterweight classifications, many fans believed they actually didn’t deserve to fight for the vacant world title Floyd Mayweather Jr had left behind when he retired last year. As part of a tournament set up by the WBC last week, Garcia vs Guerrero was scheduled for the vacant title as well as a number of other fights as part of the tournament including the semi-main event between Sammy Vazquez and Aaron Martinez. Vazquez won that fight by forcing Martinez to retire on his stool after the sixth round.
The funny thing is those fights were made weeks in advance.
Basically the WBC took advantage of an already made fight with two big names and a huge platform to make a sanctioning fee. All they had to deal is pretty much throw their dignity and integrity out the door.
The argument here is if Garcia and Guerrero actually deserved to fight for the vacant title. Both known warriors and former champions but it was only Garcia’s second fight in the weight class. In his first, he stopped the past his prime Paulie Malignaggi in nine rounds in August of last year. Perhaps Garcia wasn’t a big part of the problem but Guerrero certainly was.
After being out of the ring due to his wife’s illness back in 2011, Guerrero made the jump from the lightweight division of 135 pounds to the 147 pounds of the welterweight division where he has stayed. The trouble is, he really hasn’t had a good signature win in that weight class. Guerrero has fought in the division seven times now going 4-3 with no knockouts. His biggest win came over Andre Berto, a unanimous decision for the interim WBC title. Berto, a former champion, but not a high-profile or respected name in the sport. The other three wins have been against Selcuk Aydin, Yoshihiro Kamegai and a controversial split decision over Aaron Martinez.
His losses have been against the bigger names of Floyd Mayweather Jr, Keith Thurman and now Danny Garcia.
Now with the win it is said Garcia must now defend against the number one contender, Amir Khan, a man Garcia knocked out back in 2012 in four rounds. Khan wants the fight but not as much as the Mayweather Jr which he has been facing for the better part of a couple of years. This Saturday night Khan found himself a row back and a couple of seats over from Mayweather Jr himself but”Money” said he was happy in retirement.
